Jefferson Elementary to be Carlsbad's first magnet school

CARLSBAD -- Teachers, parents and students in Carlsbad are about
to get a crash course in International Baccalaureate, a respected
academic program that will be the foundation of the school
district's first magnet school.

When students start school in August, a group of them will be
among the first elementary students in San Diego County to be
taught using the program's "inquiry-based" learning model.

Trustees of the Carlsbad Unified School District voted
unanimously Wednesday night to convert Jefferson Elementary School
on Tamarack Drive to a magnet school that they hope will attract
students from four overcrowded elementary schools in the southern
part of the district.

School officials hit upon the magnet school concept a year ago
as a way, they said, to even out enrollment between smaller schools
in the north and overcrowded schools in the south.

Trustees said they hoped to avoid controversial mandatory
boundary changes by encouraging parents to voluntarily move their
children from Aviara Oaks, Calavera Hills, Kelly and Pacific Rim
elementary schools to the underenrolled Jefferson Elementary.

However, the new magnet school will be open to any elementary
student in Carlsbad, said Suzanne O'Connell, the district's
associate superintendent of instructional services.

The International Baccalaureate program is a rigorous academic
approach, founded in 1968 in Switzerland by a group of educated,
mobile parents and educators who wanted a diploma program for
students that could be duplicated in any school in any language,
according to Maria Hersey, regional manager for International
Baccalaureate North America.

The program offers students a global perspective and includes a
strong second-language component; it then expanded from a high
school diploma program to a middle school program, and in 1997,
added an elementary program.

The three programs -- the Primary Years, the Middle Years and
the Diploma -- are now in 1,921 schools in 114 countries, Hersey
said.

Seventy-one elementary schools in North America offer a primary
International Baccalaureate program. Only three elementary schools
in California have been authorized by the organization, with five
more in various stages of the three-year process of authorization,
Hersey said.

Poll reveals need

O'Connell told the school board Wednesday night that she was
poised to begin recruiting students for the magnet school at
Jefferson.

Fliers announcing the program were distributed Thursday at
Aviara Oaks, Calavera Hills, Kelly and Pacific Rim elementary
schools. The program will begin by recruiting kindergartners. The
district will reduce kindergarten class size at Jefferson to 20
students per teacher as a way to make the program more
attractive.

O'Connell said she would consider the program a success in its
first year if it pulled 50 students from those overcrowded
schools.

A poll commissioned by the school district, done by the San
Diego County Office of Education, showed enough preliminary support
to convince school board members to approve it, officials said.

The poll targeted parents of students at the overcrowded
campuses and tried to gauge how many families would likely choose
to move their children from their neighborhood school to a magnet
school, O'Connell said.

The survey also sought information on what kinds of programs
would appeal to parents.

Of the 2,047 surveys mailed, 462 were returned -- nearly a 23
percent response, officials said.

They said 246 families supported the idea of a magnet school,
and 142 families said they would be willing to drive to any school
in the district. More than 200 parents said they would be willing
to send their children to an International Baccalaureate
program.

The next steps

O'Connell said the district will hold a series of presentations
at Jefferson Elementary School, the first on May 9, to explain the
International Baccalaureate concept, how the district plans to
implement it, and to answer parents' questions.

The principal and the first group of seven teachers are
scheduled to attend International Baccalaureate training in May in
Florida, O'Connell said. A second group will be trained in late
June. The objective is to have all 35 teachers trained in the first
year.

O'Connell said in December that the district hopes to first
create a preschool to fifth-grade program, and if all goes well, to
expand it to middle and high schools.

Certification as an International Baccalaureate school takes at
least three years, and is not automatic, officials said.

The International Baccalaureate organization sends
representatives throughout the development process to ensure that
its program and methods are being properly implemented, Hersey
said. The school will be certified as an International
Baccalaureate by the organization after three years of satisfactory
implementation.

O'Connell said that teacher training, the International
Baccalaureate application fee and the program consultant will cost
$180,000 over three years.

Why Jefferson?

The Jefferson campus is a perfect site for a magnet school --
and the International Baccalaureate program -- for a number of
reasons, said Jefferson Principal Carol Van Vooren.

The school's population of 500 students is about 75 percent
Latino, Van Vooren said. The library already has an extensive
collection of second-language books, as well as ones dealing with
cultures around the world.

Though teachers there have many questions about the program,
they are ready and willing to take on the challenges, Van Vooren
said. The teacher population is stable at Jefferson, and in the
last five years, test scores have climbed steadily, she added.

With 500 students, the school is underenrolled. Built for 850
students, even if all current students chose to stay, the school
would still have room for another 350 students.

In 2000, the district completed a $7.3 million renovation of the
school that now stands ready with up-to-date technology and empty
classrooms.